‘SNL’-styled sketch group includes live audience input

By: Eric Schneider – Staff Writer

It’s a safe assumption that the majority of college students have watched a clip from “Key & Peele,”taken valuable time out of a Saturday night to watch “SNL” or discovered the “Whitest Kids You Know” on YouTube. The concept behind these comedy shows is known as sketch comedy.

Essentially, these shows all consist of short skits that are pre-recorded by the comedians. The University of Dayton’s sketch comedy group will be performing their rendition of “SNL”-styled comedy this weekend. The only difference: everything is done onstage – live – and the order of sketches is fully chosen by the audience.

The event, known as Full Circle, is hosted in the Black Box Theatre, room 155 in the CPC. Upon entering, the first thing audience members notice is the “Full Circle” encompassing the wall behind the stage.

“There’s a circle on the back wall, cut up like a pie,” said freshman pre-law major Norb Wessels, one of two main directors of Full Circle.

“Each ‘sliver’ has its own number with a corresponding sketch. The audience chooses the number, and we are ready to perform any sketch chosen.”

This interactive format allows the audience to be directly involved with the performance, choosing all 26 of the sketches that will be performed. To keep the audience engaged, “the show lasts about an hour to an hour and a half, and we don’t have an intermission,” Wessels said. This means that the audience is entertained for a consecutive hour. There aren’t any commercial breaks in a live performance.

“The sketches are all student written,” Wessels said. “The entire show is put on by students.”

Entertained by sketch comedy? Want to support some fellow UD Flyers? This is an event that should be considered. Full Circle is free to the public on Friday, Feb. 28 and Saturday, Feb. 29 at 8 p.m.

“The show is going to be hilarious because the audience decides our fate,” Wessels said. “We are going in to the show clueless.”